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  #1  
Old 04-28-2002, 03:17 AM
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looking for recommendations on tires

I know I can spend time looking around for reviews and all, but I am not buying for a little while, until I know exactly what I will have to spend out of insurance.

But in preperations, I am most likely buying the following:

17X7.5 Wheels ET of 35

Tire size that should work fine for me is 225/45/17 if I am correct from what I have read around.

As for tires, I'm open to most brands, the car will never see snow, and well not too much rain either as this is Los Angeles.

I was thinking something along the lines of the following requirements.

1. Good handling
2. Quiet
3. Best mileage without compromising on performance.

a 30,000 mile tire is not out of the question, most cars I have driven have had long lasting tires, but handling wasn't as good as it could.

On a side note....

My MGB had pirelli P6 tires that gripped well, you could tell where your traction was and wasn't, and they were nice tires, I'm not sure how the mileage was as the car got totalled with about 15-20k on the tires, but from what I remember they still had good tread left. I have driven on p6 tires on a 1976 porsche 911s 2.7 my brother had and they were nice on that car too. I have also driven with them on an 85 190e 2.3 my brother had, and they were great on that car. So as you can see, pirelli p6's so far from my experience performed nicely and all.

I am considering a similar tire as the p6's characteristics, as I think it was a very good tire.

I would like to keep cost down as much as can, but I'm not looking to skimp oon the tires over a few dollars. I don't mind a slight price increase if the tires are that much better.

I would like tires with a rim guard if possible too, but its not a major deciding factor.

So all you out there who know tires, I'm looking for suggestions. I will be adding bilstein sport shocks to my neuspeed spring combo, and maybe even a sway bar upgrade. I might even do the suspension bushings with new sportline bushings too. So that should lean more towards a more performance oriented tire. It should have decent to good wet traction for those times when it does rain here.

Alon

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  #2  
Old 04-28-2002, 01:21 PM
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Basically the problem I run into when buying tires, is that I am going to end up getting some sort of All-Season tire if I want the mileage, or a strictly "Summer" tire with no All-season, but less mileage as well.

The best middle ground on price, leads me to steer you towards the Bridgestone Potenza RE730s. A decent UTOG, Ultra High Performance, but it isn't the quietest tire out there. Is really good in the rain, however I believe someone with a C43 complained hes tried several brands of tires, and one was the Bridgestone and wasn't getting the mileage he wanted.

If you want more mileage, I say Toyo Proxes TS1. These tires were tested by some independent company, and in dry handling came tied for 3nd with Michelin, only 1st Bridgeston S-03s, and 2nd BFG KD.(were not great in the rain) I think 4th went to Dunlop SP 9000. But they were all extremely close, and price and treadwear were the biggest factors.

s-03's - $164 UTOG: 220 AA A
BFG KD - $199 UTOG: 200 AA A
Michelin - $183 UTOG: 220 AA A
Toyo - $150 UTOG: 280 AA A (20.9lbs)
SP 9000 - $162 UTOG 280A A

Thats info, I guess its up to you how much, and what not now.

Good Luck, sorry to hear about the car, that hurts just looking at it, can imagine your pain.
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  #3  
Old 04-28-2002, 01:29 PM
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My buddy at Mitsubishi Motors U.S.A. deals with the tires on their cars, and does extensive testing with the tire companies before selecting a tire.

Based on his experience, without getting into specific tire models, is that he has a highly favorable opinion of Michelin, Pirelli, Yokohama, and Toyo. He has never been of fan of Goodyear, Bridgestone, and Dunlop.

I believe his favorite tire is the Pirelli. He drives a BMW 740i, and would consider only the Pirelli. Nothing else.
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Old 04-28-2002, 06:07 PM
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mileage is my last concern, but I don't want to replace them once a year. I average around 10-15k a year on my car, so I want them to have decent mileage.

I would prefer a summer tire with high mileage.

Noise isn't a huge factor, but it can't sound like and SUV with 44" Super swamper mud tires driving down the freeway that you can hear over a 100 db stereo system with the windows closed. hehe

Basically I hate the conti tires I have now, and since I need to replace them anyway but I am getting new wheels, I wont buy them again.

I'd go with michelin pilots, but I can't see spending so much for a tire when there are other brands that are very similar in everything to the michelin except price.

The re730's sound lucrative, and price is good.

I was thinking I want to spend as little as I can. I'm not looking for tires that stick like glue, I don't go racing around town, but I want the car to handle nicely.

Thanks for the comments so far...

Alon
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  #5  
Old 04-28-2002, 08:33 PM
LarryBible
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Ashman,

I am curious about what you don't like about your Continentals? I saw a post when I bought the C Class about the Continentals being "noisy." That is not a concern to me.

I have had some very good Continentals. They are not great handling tires, but the ones I've had were smooth, balanced well and gave many smooth miles. I've only bought two sets, so I'm curious to know abouth other peoples experiences with them.

My use for them is mostly highway miles, and my criteria is that they balance well and last to a reasonable number of miles.

Continentals are one of the few tires I've found with radial mold marks. Most all American tires I see have the mold mark around the outside. Micelin started using molds that go together in a way to keep the belts more uniform, Continental has followed their lead. Have you seen some of the Japanese tires that also use a radially joined mold?

Have a great day,
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  #6  
Old 04-29-2002, 12:58 AM
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Larry you hit the nail on the head. nothing bad to say except the handling. I couldn't even do 50 mph on a street I can usually do 75 on no problem. The contis just had no stick whatsoever. Its kind of sad when your brothers range rover can drive the same street at 75 mph and still have more left and good handling, and your benz just can't cut it above 50. the tires would just start to break traction. Now on the highway the contis were fine, 120 mph was no problem for them. Its the street handling that just got to me. I'm used to stickier tires on cars that are more of a sporty car.

My jeep was able to do 65 on the same streets with no problems, again an SUV should not outhandle an autobahn burnin benz, unless its an ML55 or a BMW X5 4.6IS....

Wet traction was horrendous, and dry traction almost as bad.

If I ever did go to fast and got the car to break loose, you couldn't easily correct it in one swift manuever you had to jog back and forth.

Overall, mileage and ride and quietness were fine, it was the handling I hated.

The handling made me feel as if I was running bicycle tires on my car.

Alon
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  #7  
Old 04-30-2002, 12:59 AM
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I agree. I had ContiSport Contact tires (215 40ZR/17) on my Volvo T-5R and they were absolutely awful. They were loud, had terrible wet traction, only mediocre dry traction and went flat ALL the time. The only plus was that they easily lasted over 25K miles which is great for a Z rated tire. They probably only lasted so long because the rubber was a harder than average compound. That would explain the lousy grip.

Alex

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